Gwartney atDNA Project
See also Gwartney / Gwaltney Family History
As more of our family members take autosomal (atDNA) tests, the results become more difficult and time-consuming to track.
This project is intended to reduce duplicated effort - and share our findings.
All corrections (and there will be many) and suggestions for improvement are appreciated:
Gwartney Family History
Unlike most families, it appears that all (or almost all) Gwartneys in America descend from a single Welsh family that
immigrated to Surry County Virginia in the early-mid 1600s.
Spellings include Gwaltney, Gualtney, Gortney and more - but we all appear to descend from Thomas Gwaltney (1613-1666).
Read more about our Gwartney family history.
Project Goals
The atDNA project will initially focus on descendents of Micajah Gwartney (1750-1818), Thomas's third-great-grandson.
It may eventually expand to earlier generations if there is sufficient interest and participation.
The primary project goals are to:
- Combine atDNA testing and traditional genealogical research to identify the primary Gwartney ancestral lines in America.
- Collect and share family photos and stories with all Gwartney descendants.
Potential Difficulties
As the Gwartney family migrated west, they intermarried with a number of families across multiple generations.
This may lead to false conclusions, as atDNA matches that appear to be to Gwaltneys may instead be to descendants of other lines of the
Albin, Bruce, Wright, or several other families. This won't usually be a problem, but is something to watch.
Our Gwartney Connections
Kevin, Kevin's father, three of his aunts, and two of his father's first cousins (siblings) have posted their atDNA results -
and are all grandchildren of Grace Gwartney (1889-1983).
Many Gwartneys match to one or more of us (for privacy reasons, I obscure parts of the names of all living relatives other than myself):
- Kevin Ireland
- GI - Kevin Ireland
- SI - S...Ireland
- SM - S...McFadden
- GP - D...Prichard
- RB - dennieb...123 (two tests; same person)
- DB - consciousc...101
How You Can Help
Please contribute to this project however you can:
- Email family stories that can be shared publicly (names and places of living people will never be posted)
- Send corrections to information presented here
- Send usernames of your Gwartney-ancestor atDNA matches - especially members of Gwartney DNA Circles on Ancestry.com
- Update your Ancestry tree to link your family back to Micajah and Elizabeth (if not already connected to them)
- Provide feedback on ways to make this information more helpful to you
- Create a free account at Gedmatch.com and upload your atDNA test results there.
Gwartney Family Lines - atDNA Matched
Nothing in genealogy research is ever 100% accurate (especially when working with multiple entangled family lines),
but we're reasonably confident that
we've correctly matched these families. See "Susan" exception.
Micajah Gwartney (1750-1818) Descendants
Micajah and his wife Elizabeth McGuffy (1750-1830) had perhaps five sons and five daughters, with many hundreds (and perhaps thousands) of living descendants.
During the initial phase of this project, we're tracking descendants of four of their sons and one daughter. We expect to add more lines as we go forward.
Note: Susan L Gwartney (1808-1885) Descendants
Most Ancestry trees say that Susan is the daughter of Micajah Gwartney (1750-1818) and Elizabeth McGuffy (1750-1830).
Since not many children are born to 58 year old mothers, I'm going to assume that that information is wrong.
One of our research goals will be to try to identify her parents.
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